TITLE: Ext3 hint
LFS VERSION: All kernel 2.4 and later versions
AUTHOR: Hywel Mallett
SYNOPSIS: How to use Ext3 if you don't want ReiserFS
HINT:
The ext3 filesystem has the advantage over ReiserFS that it is
backward-compatible with ext2, and that conversion from ext2 to ext3 is trivial
(e.g. if you have a separate /home partition).
1. Don't bother building reiserfs-utils. (You may if you wish, but unless you
are going to use ReiserFS elsewhere, there is no benefit).
2. When building your kernel, ensure you compile in ext3 support. This may be as
a module or built into the kernel. However, should you wish to have an ext3 root
partition, then it must be compiled into the kernel.
3. Edit the /etc/fstab file, changing the filesystem type to auto. You may
alternatively change it to ext3, but should you accidentally build a kernel with
only ext2 support, it will not recognise the ext3 filesystem type.
4. For each partition on which you wish to use ext3, run:
tune2fs -j /dev/
This will create the journal on the same partition.
5. Remount the relevant partitions. (Or simply reboot)
Once you are up and running, it may be an idea to check the tune2fs man page, to
find what other options are available, particularly the fsck frequency. Since the
idea of a journalling filesystem is to prevent unwanted fscks, you may wish to
disable them entirely. An alternative way to do this is to change the sixth field
in the /etc/fstab file to 0. On systems where extra downtime may not be such a
problem, you may wish to leave the fscks enabled. In addition, you may like to
create the journal on a different drive.
Additional information is available at
http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/ext3/ext3-usage.html